Saturday, 14 November 2009

Sephora Sightings

Now's a good time to go shopping at Sephora as it is giving away $20 vouchers for every S$150 purchase. The store at Ion is all decked out for the holiday shopping season with lots of gift ideas. They had a lovely set of 3 gold zip pouches for S$25. I was surprised to find Sephora's blockbuster palette prominently displayed at the entrance. The version that is available in Singapore is slightly different from the palette that is currently available in the US. The Singapore version (called Good as Gold, or something like that) costs S$79 and has 6 blushes and the usual dazzling array of lip colors and eyeshadows. It is made in China. I was quite impressed by the silky texture and good color payoff of the blushes, most of which have a lovely shimmer. The eyeshadows were less pigmented and some were chalky. I did not swatch the lip colors. Fred Farrugia is a new brand of makeup sold in individual modules that has just been launched at Sephora. It didn't look that appealing to me so I didn't play with it. Incidentally, Becca has been pulled out of Sephora Ion (not sure if it's also been pulled out from the store at Ngee Ann City). I'm really sad to see it fail a second time in my country and so quickly too! Their products are good but the price points were just too ridiculously high to be able to appeal to a wide segment of consumers. By Terry is now also available at Sephora. The new Bliss Spa inside Sephora (next to the row of cashiers in the innermost corner) looks like it's almost ready to open for business! Here's what I came home with: Bliss Steep Clean Deep Pore Cleanser (S$44), Blood Orange + White Pepper Soapy Suds Body Wash (S$32), Lemon + Sage Conditioning Rinse (S$20) and Ingrown Eliminating Pads (S$63). The prices are actually not too bad compared to the US. For example, the Body Wash costs US$18 in the US, which would probably come up to around S$27 including tax. The Deep Pore Cleanser costs US$32 in the US, which is about the same as the price in Singapore. The Ingrown Eliminating Pads are US$38 (S$53) in the US, so that was not such a good deal but the price differential between Singapore and the US is just not big enough to make me want to go through the hassle of getting it CP'd from the US.

Hi engeng,The Ingrown Eliminating Pads are meant for dabbing on areas that you have recently shaved (like legs) to prevent ingrown hairs. The pads are soaked with salicylic acid which helps to exfoliate the skin and prevent the ingrown hairs. I have very bad case of ingrown hairs on my shins, so I'm hoping this will help.

Hey mag,I read about your Fred F haul! What I didn't really like was the shape of the product wells and it looked like it could get messy. I still prefer palettes that have everything laid out in one layer, rather than have a few layers.

hi haru, did sephora give u any samples for ur purchase? i'm not sure if u have shopped in sephora in other countries b4, but when i was in paris, no matter how much i buy (i.e as little as just $6) they always will give u alot of samples when u pay at the cashier. same if u noticed the US websites, they r always offering samples with any purchase.

i always thought that its a standard policy in sephora. but seems like the one in sg is not doing the same thing.